Addiction or Withdrawel

Interpretation:

This drawing includes an assortment of many different unlikely mediums. Ink for the face, charcoal for the smoke, and pastels with a vintage music sheet for the rose. The first time I drew this face I was sitting in a four-hour lecture about addiction. It was originally two different faces drawn on a thin piece of note paper we were supposed to use to take notes. I clearly had trouble taking written notes, but I kept the drawing of the two faces and hung it up on my fridge. The face stuck with me, and all the ripples, wrinkles, and hand gestures on the face were so intriguing. I first decided to just combine the two drawings into this one face with ink, but then I wanted to expand on it because I saw potential for it in the exhibit.

Cigarettes are very present in my drawings, I feel that they are a reflection of how we feel after a long day or night. They also remind me of Europe and my time in Paris very much. After a long night out with friends we reflect on it with a shared cigarette. Like a glass of wine after a long day, we ironically resort to these things to let go and forget. This man is holding a rose and a cigarette, alone. The rose is made out of the piano notes “Le Papillon”, the butterfly, which is ironic seeing that butterflies represent rebirth and growth. If you look closely at the smoke through the rose, you can see a broken heart. There is so much more to this piece than meets the eye right away. Just as we get addicted to these substances to get away from reality we get addicted to love, because it's like a drug too. What if it's taken away? What does that withdrawal feel like? What do you think happened here? And who was the rose for?